Please forgive a little more self-indulgence this morning but, like the Scorched Wing, the Burnished Brass is a moth which I cannot resist photographing, so various and so striking are the ways in which its metallic scales reflect and refract the light.
It looks particularly good in equally fine company, such as the Elephant Hawk in my top picture (so many of those arriving at the moment; 11 of them in the eggboxes last night. We must have masses of willowherb nearby, as you probably have too). I'm very fond of the micro Catoptria pinella too. Here it is, rather larger:
The next picture shows yet another BB, this time in the company of its near relative the Buff Arches. Although lacking metallic wing scales, this is another very beautiful moth with its combination of tawny brown and cream. Yet another inspiration for similes involving frappe coffee or capuccino; and it has what appears to Arabic writing like an Ottoman Sultan's tugra, or signature, on its forewing.
Two delicate additions: a Spiondle Ermine micromoth, very small but sometimes responsible for vast larval cocoon webs which can engulf whole trees. And a Muslin Footman, a speck of a macro which always looks blurred, as the Scorched Wing so often does, even when I have finally got it into focus. Although entirely different in appearance, it is a relative of the various forms of narrow-looking, grey and yellow Footmen, of which more anon.
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